Lysozyme as a barrier to growth of Bacillus anthracis strain Sterne in liquid egg white, milk and beef

In this study, we investigated the role of lysozyme on the viability of Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus pumilus and Bacillus anthracis (Sterne) in egg white (EW), ground beef and milk. At 35 °C in EW, growth rates (GR) for B. cereus, B. subtilis, B. pumilus and B. anthracis were 0.005, −0.018, −0.028 and −0.029 OD₆₀₀/h, respectively. Heat-treating EW at 55 and 60 °C reduced the inactivating effect of EW by 3.1 and 10.5-fold, respectively. Addition of lysozyme (2 mg/ml) to 60 °C-treated EW increased the inactivation rate 5.76-fold, indicating involvement of lysozyme in B. anthracis inactivation. B. anthracis inactivation was influenced by pH, as shown by a progressive increase in inactivation rate from 0.25 to −4.42 logs CFU/h over a pH range of 6.0-8.5. Adding 2 mg/ml lysozyme to milk and ground beef also suppressed the growth of B. anthracis 3.3 and 6.5-fold, respectively. These data indicate that lysozyme, as a natural component of EW or potential additive in other foods, could reduce biothreat risks presented by bioterror agents.     

Droplet analysis in an inkjet-integrated manufacturing process for nylon 6

With the recent progress in inkjet technology, it has been employed to develop manufacturing processes to deposit a range of functional materials for various applications. The authors have researched the possibility of a novel inkjet-integrated process for nylon 6. The concept requires stable jetting and deposition of activator and catalyst mixtures of caprolactam. This paper reports on droplet formation characteristics of the molten mixtures in the inkjet system using high-speed imaging and quantitative image analysis. By varying the process parameters, the droplet shape and kinetics were studied in addition to the stability of droplet generation. Results showed the jetting frequency did not have an effect; and with low jetting voltages, instability occurred due to the low kinetic energy, which made the droplets vulnerable to the air motion caused by convection around the heated printhead. The catalyst mixture which had a particulate nature was also investigated for consistency, to ensure the droplet characteristics were unaffected by this. Increasing the vacuum level decreased the droplet kinetics due to the higher surface energy which existed on the meniscus, which was found to be inside the nozzle. It was possible to have satellite-free and stable droplet generation conditions.     

Effect of substrate temperature on the splat formation of flame sprayed polypropylene

Polypropylene (PP) powder particles were thermally sprayed via a flame spray onto mild steel substrates at room temperature (RT), 70 °C , 120 °C, and 170 °C. Single solidified splats were collected from polished substrates. The splat morphology was characterized using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Micro-Raman spectroscopy examined the effect of substrate preheating on the molecular structure of the PP splats. The splat-substrate interface, porosity and a qualitative interpretation of the interface adhesion were obtained by cross-sectioning and imaging using the focused ion beam (FIB) technique.This study indicated that increasing the substrate temperature from room temperature to 170 °C produces PP splats of larger diameter that would be expected to exhibit improved adhesion. The influence of preheating dominates the splat formation and splat morphology. The Raman spectra indicate that the degree of crystallinity of the PP particles rises with increasing substrate temperature. Comparison of the spectra of the feedstock and the deposited PP particles confirms that there is no thermal degradation of the material under these processing conditions.This work demonstrates the influence of substrate chemistry on the PP splat morphology. Microstructural characteristics are related to the flame spray process variables for polymeric coatings.     

Application of He’s variational iteration method to the estimation of diaphragm deflection in MEMS capacitive microphone

In this paper, He’s variational iteration method (VIM) is used to analyze the deflection of poly silicon diaphragm of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) capacitive microphone. The residual stresses in the material used to make the diaphragm change the vibrational characteristics of the microphone diaphragm and consequently influence the microphone’s first resonant frequency, cutoff frequency and sensitivity. The most successful devices use poly silicon as a diaphragm material, because of its residual stress is controllable by high-temperature annealing after ion implantation by boron or phosphorous. External acoustic force causes to deflect the diaphragm of the structure and VIM is a powerful analytical method to predict the structural behavior and the microphone performance. Comparison of this new method with the previous approximate solution [1], is applied to assure us about the accuracy of solution.     

Dynamic flexible job shop scheduling with alternative process plans: an agent-based approach

This paper studies a flexible job shop problem considering dynamic events such as stochastic job arrivals, uncertain processing times, and unexpected machine breakdowns. Also, the considered job shop problem has routing flexibility and process flexibility. A multi-agent scheduling system has been developed for solution with good quality and robustness. A pheromone-based approach is proposed for coordination among agents. The proposed multi-agent approach is compared with five dispatching rules from literature via simulation experiments to statistical analysis. The simulation experiments are performed under various experimental settings such as shop utilization level, due date tightness, breakdown level, and mean time to repair. The results show that the proposed agent-based approach performs well under all problem settings.     

Structural and dielectric properties of Bi2Zn2/3Nb4/3O7 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition at low temperature for embedded capacitor applications

Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin films were deposited on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si(1 0 0) substrates at a room temperature under the oxygen pressure of 1-10 Pa by pulsed laser deposition. Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin films were then post-annealed below 200 °C in a rapid thermal process furnace in air for 20 min. The dielectric and leakage current properties of Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin films are strongly influenced by the oxygen pressure during deposition and the post-annealing temperature. Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin films deposited under 1 Pa oxygen pressure and then post-annealed at a temperature of 150 °C show uniform surface morphologies. Dielectric constant and loss tangent are 57 and 0.005 at 10 kHz, respectively. The high resolution TEM image and the electron diffraction pattern show that nano crystallites exist in the amorphous thin film, which may be the origin of high dielectric constant in the Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin films deposited at low temperatures. Moreover, Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin film exhibits the excellent leakage current characteristics with a high breakdown strength and the leakage current density is approximately 1 × 10⁻⁷ A/cm² at an applied bias field of 300 kV/cm. Bi₂Zn_2/3Nb_4/3O₇ thin films are potential materials for embedded capacitor applications.     

Estimation of Micellization Parameters of SDS in the Presence of Some Electrolytes for Emulsion Polymerization Systems

The critical micelle concentration and the effective degree of dissociation of micelles (α) of sodium dodecyl sulfate, which is the most extensively used surfactant in emulsion polymerization systems, were determined in the presence of various amounts of sodium carbonate and potassium persulfate, and some monomers, such as methyl methacrylate, butyl acrylate, and styrene by means of the conductometric procedure at 25 °C. In addition, the other micellization parameters, such as aggregation number and number of counter-ions per micelle, were computed directly from the obtained conductivity measurements data. The effect of the combination of sodium carbonate and potassium persulfate, on the critical micelle concentration of the sodium dodecyl sulfate solutions was studied at 60 °C (emulsion reaction temperature). The empirical formulations derived provide an easy way to estimate the critical micelle concentration and the effective degree of dissociation of micelles of a system at a given electrolyte and monomer concentration.     

Chemical Inhibitors and microRNAs (miRNA) Targeting the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) Pathway: Potential for Novel Anticancer Therapeutics

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a critical regulator of many fundamental features in response to upstream cellular signals, such as growth factors, energy, stress and nutrients, controlling cell growth, proliferation and metabolism through two complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2. Dysregulation of mTOR signalling often occurs in a variety of human malignant diseases making it a crucial and validated target in the treatment of cancer. Tumour cells have shown high susceptibility to mTOR inhibitors. Rapamycin and its derivatives (rapalogs) have been tested in clinical trials in several tumour types and found to be effective as anticancer agents in patients with advanced cancers. To block mTOR function, they form a complex with FKBP12 and then bind the FRB domain of mTOR. Furthermore, a new generation of mTOR inhibitors targeting ATP-binding in the catalytic site of mTOR showed potent and more selective inhibition. More recently, microRNAs (miRNA) have emerged as modulators of biological pathways that are essential in cancer initiation, development and progression. Evidence collected to date shows that miRNAs may function as tumour suppressors or oncogenes in several human neoplasms. The mTOR pathway is a promising target by miRNAs for anticancer therapy. Extensive studies have indicated that regulation of the mTOR pathway by miRNAs plays a major role in cancer progression, indicating a novel way to investigate the tumorigenesis and therapy of cancer. Here, we summarize current findings of the role of mTOR inhibitors and miRNAs in carcinogenesis through targeting mTOR signalling pathways and determine their potential as novel anti-cancer therapeutics.     

Frequency-Domain Carrier Frequency and Symbol Timing Offsets Estimation for Offset QAM Filter Bank Multicarrier Systems in Uplink of Multiple Access Networks

In this paper, we study carrier frequency offset (CFO) and symbol timing offset (STO) estimation in the uplink of multiuser offset QAM filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) communication systems. A low-complexity frequency-domain CFO estimator using periodical training sequence is proposed. Also a good estimate of STO is obtained by maximizing the energy of subcarriers subject to training sequence at the output of analysis filter bank. Furthermore we derive the theoretical MSE for the proposed CFO estimator. Computer simulations show that the derived MSE matches the simulated MSE closely. Compared with state-of-the-art time domain estimator, the proposed estimator achieves better performance with a lower computational complexity.     

Minor Constituents in Canola Oil Processed by Traditional and Minimal Refining Methods

The minimal refining method described in the present study made it possible to neutralize crude canola oil with Ca(OH)₂, MgO, and Na₂SiO₃ as alternatives to NaOH. After citric acid degumming, about 98 % of the phosphorous content was removed from crude oil. The free fatty acid content after minimal neutralization with Ca(OH)₂ decreased from 0.50 to 0.03 %. Other quality parameters, such as peroxide value, anisidine value, and chlorophyll content, after traditional and minimal neutralization were within industrial acceptable levels. The use of Trisyl silica and Magnesol R60 made it feasible to remove the hot-water washing step and decreased the amount of residual soap to <10 mg/kg oil. There were no significant changes in chemical characteristics of canola oil after using wet and dry bleaching methods. During traditional neutralization, the total tocopherol loss was 19.6 %, while minimal refining with Ca(OH)₂, MgO, and Na₂SiO₃ resulted in 7.0, 2.6, and 0.9 % reductions in total tocopherols. Traditional refining removed 23.6 % of total free sterols, while after minimal refining free sterols content did not change. Both traditional and minimal refining resulted in almost complete removal of polyphenols from canola oil. Total phytosterols and tocopherols in two cold-pressed canola oils were 774 and 836 mg/100 g, and 366 and 354 mg/kg, respectively. The minimal refining method described in the present study was a new practical approach to remove undesirable components from crude canola oil meeting commercial refining standards while preserving more healthy minor components.